Ring engraving as well as other personal item engraving is a popular way of altering jewelry and personal items to have a tailored message or pattern suited to the desires of an owner. Jewelers have honed their draft through years of practice and dedication to develop a skill set for engraving words and designs onto metal items and the like. Such engraving techniques often involve the use of a jeweler's ball vise (or simply a jeweler's ball) that is suited to hold an item, such as a ring, rigidly in place while a craftsperson engraves the item or otherwise examines or works on the rigidly held item.
A conventional jeweler's ball may include a universal ball joint upon which an item clamp and clamp assembly may be attached. Thus, an item to be engraved may be secured in a clamp in order to hold the item in place. Then, the clamp and clamp assembly may be maneuvered about freely (i.e., in a universal manner with all degrees of freedom with respect to an x-axis, a y-axis and a z-axis) to place the item in a desired position for engraving. As the craftsperson completes the engraving in the initial secured position, the craftsperson may then loosen the universal ball join in order to reposition the secured item for the next engraving step. Such a repositioning often involves use of more than one hand such that the craftsperson must set an engraving tool down and then reposition the item being engraved because two hands are required to operate the universal joint. A repositioning process that involves the use of both hands of the craftsperson in cumbersome and time-consuming.